I am here to just call our mission team forward because I promised you last
week that we were going to pray us out this week. So last week
we took our offering, and this week we are this. We leave on
Wednesday. So if you're on on the mission team, I know that quite
a few aren't here this morning. Come on up, line up here,
Connie, Dwayne, yup, yup. Here we do. Here we go.
We have eight of us. We did shrink by one because Dale Rummel
is not going to be able to be with us. He injured himself last
week at the church picnic. Let me just tell yeah that church picnic was
crazy, right, So we are down one. So we're gonna have to
work double hard, all of us. So we have a lot planned,
We've got a lot on the docket, and we we have a it's going
to start with a twenty nine hour fly day tinnerary. That's why we need
prayer. We need your help. Twenty nine hours. I've you know,
I've never spent that long trying to get to Uganda, but that's what it
is these days. So we're gonna We're just we just got a lot to
do. We got it. We got amazing things. Danne and Joe are
going to be speaking at the pastor's conference there, so we just need to
pray over them that they have mighty mighty downloads for that whole there's gonna have
somewhere between three and four hundred pastors. So these guys are gonna rocket,
They're gonna do just They're gonna bring the word, They're gonna bring the spirit.
Connie's gonna be sewing, No she has She's gonna have a pedal sewing
machine because they don't have electric ones there. I just I sprung that news
on her the other day. She's like, what, So that's gonna be
great for her. Sophia and Sandy and I and Debbie and Dennis, we
are all headed down to a medical outreach. So just pray, just pray.
We got so much to do. Would you reach your hands forward to
us and pray for traveling mercies. Father, God, I just ask you
right now, thank you so much for this honor, this honor, and
this privilege to do this for you a father and God, I just ask
you right now to just settle upon us. Lord, give us grace and
mercy on those four flights to get us there. Lord, every landing,
every takeoff, Lord, four coming back, that's eight. Just think about
that, people. God, I just ask you right now you'll give us
grace and mercy. Let us sleep when sleep hits us. Lord, that
just life would be good. Lord. I thank you that no sickness will
come upon us, no injury would come upon us. That we are kept
in your hand, Lord and Father, every word out of our mouth,
every person we touch. Lord, I just ask you right now for just
a mighty outpouring of your holy spirit, mighty mighty outpouring of your holy spirit
in Jesus name. Amen, hallelujah, Thank you so much. Apparently so
last week, now you guys can be seated. Last week, I told
you that I had a dream. Did I tell you about that? Was
that your first service or second service? I said that in I was only
one service. So y'all got it right. So I told you I ad
a dream, and I never told you my dream. Do you know what
my dream was? My dream was that when we took the offering last week,
that you gave one hundred and three thousand dollars. So I was like
dancing in my dream one hundred and three that So you know, that's it.
We didn't get quite one hundred and three thousand. So if you want
to, you know, add to the pile, that's perfectly fine. But
I just wanted to, you know, if you were all waiting all week,
you know, hanging by that thread of what was the dream, I
want to make sure you knew that. So anyway, God blessed you,
and we're gonna have a great time. And we won't be here next Sunday,
but you will. We'll send a video. All right, So here
you go, sir, Thank you love. Let's stay in prayer for the
word. Yeah, we're excited to go, and we're excited to come back.
Hallelujah. Oh but it'll be awesome. It'll be fun. We will
represent and God's moving. Amen, fun stuff, Kingdom's growing. Father.
We thank you for your word today. Thank you that your present by the
Holy Spirit to lead us into the fullness of Jesus. We welcome you.
We will give you, transform our hearts, transform our thoughts. Thank you,
give you the praise for it in Jesus name. Everybody said, Amen,
you may be seated. We've been talking about restoration and I'm going to
jump right into the word because of time, and so oh, I don't
want to. I don't want to be labor things. But we've been talking
about our restoration theme and that God has restoration and mind, and of course
we want you to we want you to have that in your heart. Because
God is optimistic, he's not pessimistic. God is excited about the future.
He's not depressed about the future. God has a good plan for us already
and still and he hasn't changed his mind about that. And every day is
a new day. And it doesn't matter if you live in Babylon. God
can show up, delivery out of fiery furnaces, shut them out of lions.
So never never evaluate how life's going to go based on where you live
in this realm, because your citizenship is that's right, you're already a citizen
of heaven. Right. Your resources flow out of heaven, and your authority
flows out of heaven, and your knowledge flows out of heaven, and every
answer and every solution flows out of Heaven for you, right, So we
can't be depressed. Everybody say it with me. I can't be depressed.
I refuse to be oppressed. Come on, come on, come on,
come on, say it like you believe it. I can't be depressed.
I refuse to be oppressed. Amen. Amen, Amen. And so we've
been talking about this growing kingdom from the first advent to the last advent.
Jesus came right, not two thousand years ago. We celebrate that, and
there's this progression of kingdom growth. And so the kingdom is growing. It
started with just a grain, with just a seed. John twelve twenty four,
started with the seed. But in the end, it's going to be
many sons and daughters. Right in the end, it's going to be an
overwhelming kingdom. And in the process, He's restored us so that he can
restore the Earth. It's the sun. The earth is waiting for the sons
of God. The earth is waiting. So it's the Sun's being restored first,
then the earth, because the Earth is waiting for the sons of God
to be restored, the sons of God to live in sonship. Right,
Yeah, And so this is exciting stuff. All this is exciting stuff.
And even though we're imperfect, God's using us. Even though we're imperfect,
God is doing great things through us. And this is the most strategic organization
and organism on the planet. This is the most powerful, the most strategic,
the most life changing organization and organism on the planet. You're not a
church at tender. You're a world changer. Come on, say it with
me. I'm not a church at tender. I'm a world changer. You're
a world changer. Amen. Amen. And if you haven't changed the world
yet, just say that a few times over yourself begin to shift. You're
thinking that you're not. You know, a church attender can be a spectator.
You're another spectator. You're a game changer. You're not a spectator.
You're a church attender. Could be a consumer, but you're not a consumer.
You've been consumed and so you represent Jesus everywhere you go because you've been
consumed consumed by him. You have one obsession that you might obtain why He
obtained you, that you might find out why he found you. You have
one obsession, and together we come and we form the church. The church
is a bunch of stuff. We've talked about a lot of this stuff in
the past. A church is the ecclesia, right, and the ecclesia borrowed
from the Greeks and the Romans. The ecclesia terminology, the ecclesia is a
legislative body. They bring the government of God into the government of the earth.
Yeah, so we are we are the ecclesia. But he also said
that the church is those who are restoring David's Tabernacle. So that's another aspect.
So the church is a lot of stuff. The church is restoring David's
tabernacle. So we're a people of worship, crazy worship. We're a people
of exuberant, undignified, devoted praise in the worship, prayer, sacrifice.
That's the church David's Tabernacle. We are patterned after David. He's named after
David. And so that's one aspect of the church is that we live to
restore the glory that existed in David's tabernacle and to restore it in the earth.
Yes, the church is also a body, right, the Bible talks
about that a bunch. The church is a body, and the church comes
together as a body. This is part of why we come together. Part
of why we need each other is because we build one another up. We're
attached to one another. We strengthen one another in love, We sup we
supply love to one another. The body builds itself up in love and we
all have different functions. We all have different functions, and so that's part
of why we come together and why we flow together, and why we go
together, and why we function together and why we go further together is because
we're a body. And I've never seen my arms stay in bed when I
got up. My arm goes with me all day, My foot goes with
me all day, My ears go with me all day. Aren't you glad
your body doesn't? Aren't you glad you don't have protesting body members? That
would be a little embarrassing, right, And so that's one aspect of us.
And we're the most important organization and organism on the planet and what God
is doing through us. God is doing all of this through us. But
but there's a structure to it. I maybe you know, there's a structure
to it. There's a structure to the call to restore. There's a structure
too. And he's and he's even said he's even given his offices effusions forces.
He distributed his offices in the body. So that's interesting. There's a
there's structure to the body. And so there's pastors and profits and teachers and
so He's He's given all of these like there's there's actually organization right to the
Body of Christ, those things that we you know, the things that we're
enjoying today, even in a building with with people functioning and people in different
roles, and we had the we had ap staffs, we had David's mighty
singers and musicians up here. What would this gathering be like if we didn't
have David's Mighty musicians and singers up here? Right? How many of you?
How many of you could sense the Holy Spirit here during the worship?
I could. I ran out to the restroom. Wasn't a lot of annointing
in the four year so I feel sorry for the youth sitting out there today.
There was less annointing in the bathroom. But when I came back in,
I felt I literally felt the annointing as I came toward the front.
This is why I always want to sit in the front. As I came
toward the front, the anointing was stronger. I started getting goosebumps as I
came toward the front. I'm serious, I don't make this stuff up.
I'm like, oh, I got a weepy right here. I got all
weepy. I'm like, oh, my goodness, Holy Spirit, you're so
good to us that you would calm and abide with this in our worship,
that she would calm and dwell with this in our worship. But these are
privileged things. All of these privileged things crazy goofy odd interesting, But the
way it works in a tangible third dimension in the world, they all take
money. They all take money, they all take money, they all have
to be supported. So God determined. This isn't interesting. God determined even
with the first priest and the first priesthood. This is interesting with the first
priest and the first priesthood, that that first priest and the first priesthood would
be supported by the first member of the family of God, Abraham with ten
percent of his injuries. Isn't that a crazy thing? So way back here
in Genesis fourteen, Abraham is called out of err. Everybody say, err,
aren't you glad you didn't live there? Abraham is called out of error
when he was the pagan. He's called out of err to the land I
will show you. And so he's led to this land and he gets to
the most He got to a land like Eden is what he got to the
Lord led him right to a land like the Garden of Eden, and then
he said, lift up your eyes as far as you can see. This
is the land I'm going to give to you and to your descendants. And
so he comes. This is Genesis chapter twelve. Genesis chapter twelves. Over
here, this is chapter twelve. And so God calls him, and God
ask him to come into a covenant relationship with him, and God says,
I will bless you. And God says, I will make your name great,
and through you will all be blessed to That's Genesis chapter twelve, the
first act of the first act of Abraham's prosperity, the first recorded act of
his increase after Genesis twelve four Genesis twelve, there is no We aren't told
one thing about Abraham or Abram was his name in the beginning. Remember,
his name was changed because God said, I'm going to add the consonant of
my name to your name, because you will you will be known as a
father of many nations. So Abram became Abraham because God added a portion of
his name to his name, and he became known as the father of many
nations. Before he had a child. But way over here. All of
this we aren't here. We don't hear anything about Abram giving any wealth,
any money to God. There's no claim on Abram's increase. And yet he
was doing pretty good. He had three hundred and eighteen servants. Is that
pretty good? Pretty good? But when we get over here to Genesis chapter
twelve and God asked him to come into covenant, then we see the first
thing that happens in Genesis chapter fourteen. The first thing that happens on the
first increase of Abram is that Abram connects with a priest, a priest called
melk kaesidek anybody here in milk kesideck old time Christians, king good, all
the gray hairs in the building. Okay, So in Genesis chapter fourteen,
he wins this crazy battle defending Lot because Lots his nephew that came with him,
and Lot was stolen away with all of his stuff, and so he
takes his servants and he pursues five Kings, and he overtakes five Kings and
beats the snot out of him. Then he steals all of the plunder,
not only the plunder that was taken, but everything he took, all the
booty. He took all the plunder and then he and as he when he
comes back, he comes back and connects with this priest called milk Keasident Jenesis
chapter fourteen. And in the presence of Melkesedic, they have communion. Melkesitic
serves him bread and wine. They have communion. It's a sign of covenant.
Bread and wine are a sign of covenant. The wine represents blood spilled
blood. The bread represents a broken body. That's really what a covenant says
is that I will go to the death for you. So he it's recorded
Genesis chapter fourteen, and it says that as he came back, he gave
ten percent to Melkesedic, ten percent of all the plunder, gave it to
Malkkesident. Yeah, we can go there later. Wait for me. Thank
you, though I appreciate him went for him to kill it. I'll come
back to it. I'll come back to Genesis fourteen. We do want you
to think I'm telling the truth. It's the first act of giving. Where
do I want to go with all this thinking about you know, thinking about
restoration. What if restoration if frustrations through the church, what if restoration is
hampered or hindred if the church is not prospering, Like, what if the
people of God are not prospering as they could? Right? Does you know
if the people of God are not prospering as they could, then that means
the church isn't prospering as it could. Right. Abraham was, this is
joyful giver. This is this first time he's given. He's this crazy joyful
giver because God promised to make him rich. Did you know that God had
promised to set him apart and make him rich? And so giving ten percent
to God seemed like a little bitty thing, Like, if God's going to
make me rich, what in the world, why would I want to hang
on to ten percent? Why not just recognized him that he gave me the
victory of this battle, and that he gives me everything. But then he
was offered by the Kingdom Sodom. He was offered everything, all of the
plunder. Don't even give it back. Don't give it back to us,
don't give it back to our cities. Don't give it back everything that was
taken, everything that you brought back, all of the booty, all the
plunder. You keep it all. And Abram said, no, I can't
I've had a conversation with God. I can't keep it. I've had a
conversation with God. See, God already promised that he would make me rich.
And far be it for it ever to be said that you made me
rich. Let's go there, let's read it, Michael. You jumped,
You jumped the gun. Let's jump the gun. Go Genesis chapter were okay?
Genesis chapter fourteen, verse seventeen. After Abram returned from defeating ked Lamore
and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet
him in the valley of Chevab, that is the king's valley. Then Melkesedeck,
king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest
of God most hie. By the way, this was a Christophanie. How
maybe you know what a Christophan he was. So we're told that Malkzedek had
no lineage. We're actually told that Melkzedek was actually a pre existent Christ.
That actually, when Abraham was called into relationship with God, God sealed the
relationship with a blessing by an actual visitation of Christ. So that's who this
was. By the way, he was the priest of God most High,
and he blessed Abram, saying, blessed be Abram by God Most High,
creator of heaven and Earth. And praise be to God Most High, who
delivered your enemies into your hand. Say it together with me, delivered your
enemies into your hand. Now this is interesting. I mean, we don't
know. We don't know that before mentioned history of Abram. But what we
know is that from the moment he went into covenant with God, from then
on, God was going to give him victory all over all of his enemies.
He gave the Abraham victory over all of his enemies even when Abram lied
all you mean, Abraham wasn't perfect. Yeah, he wasn't perfect, and
he lied about his wife one time to a Beameleca king, and God still
showed up and honored his word to Abram. Even though Abram failed on his
word to God. Praise be to God Most High, who delivered I'm just
saying that God, from the moment you came to Christ, God is the
one giving you your victories. God is the one giving you prosperity. God
is the one giving you increase. God is the one giving you wisdom.
God is the one who's giving you overcoming power. God is the one who's
giving you grace. God's the one giving you life. God's the one who's
stas saying you. God's the one who's giving you breadth from the moment you
came in the covenant with God. It's God who gave you those victories.
But this is interesting. Then Abram gave him Melkezedek a tenth of everything.
Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, give me the people. Just
give me the people back, all the people that were stolen and you brought
them back. Give me the people back. But you keep the goods for
yourself, the rest of the goods. But Abram said to the King of
Sodom, with raised hand, I have sworn on an oath to the Lord
God Most High. Oh, they had a conversation. There was the conversation,
with raised hand, I have sworn on an oath to the Lord God
most High, feeder of heaven and Earth, that I will accept nothing belonging
to you, not even a thread or a strap of a sandal, so
that you will never be able to say I made Abram rich. Isn't that
interesting? Isn't that something I want you to see? Something I want you
to see the promise to Abraham was I'm going to make you rich. I'm
gonna make you rich. I'm going to make your rich. I'm gonna make
you rich. Not your cunning, not your proudness, not your cheating,
not your lying, not your deceiving, not your skill, not your knowledge,
not your dissalinesty, not your fraudulent means. I'm gonna make you rich.
Lean on me, trust me, walk with me, Give me my
tenth. I'm gonna make you rich. That's a crazy thing. I think
these things are powerful to talk about, and you know, when it always
comes to the preaching time, I've always got twenty pages of notes and two
minutes to say it, you know. But these things are important to talk
about because I think that we are we as a people, we don't realize
what God wants to do for us, and so we struggle with tithing.
We struggle like in a body like ours, which is a very devoted We
got prophetic ministry, deliverance, ministry, outreach ministry, food bank ministry.
This is a very devoted ministry. Only about half of us tithe in your
average congregation in America, only twenty percent of the people tithe. Now I
didn't say tip. Lots of Christians give a tip. Lots of Christians give
probably one hundred percent give a tip. But I'm talking about a ten percent
tide. A tithe is ten percent pre tax, pre tax giving. It's
the first fruits. It's not the second fruits, the third fruits. It's
the first. Fact is Leviticas look at Leviticus twenty seven thirty. I think
we haven't Leviticus twenty seven thirty. And I wouldn't even go there. I'll
just let's go to the street, and well, can you find it like
a tide of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit
from the trees, belongs to the Lord. Did you hear that it isn't
even my money. It's not even my money. It belongs to the Lord.
It is holding to the Lord. Whoever it would redeem it, any
of their tithe must add a fifth to the value of it. Did you
know that that under the Mosaic law, God said, if you want to
hang on your tide for a while, you owe me twenty percent interest,
add a fifth to it. Is that crazy? You would only owe a
fifth to something that belonged to somebody else. See, it doesn't belong to
you. The ten percent doesn't belong to you. It actually doesn't belong to
you. I'm trying to answer the question this morning, because I know that
we struggle with this a little bit. Is that is the tide the valid?
We've had so many arguments about it. You can just go online and
there's all sorts of people saying that the tithe is not even valid, that
it's moot, it's nothing. We should even discuss that the tithe has no
place in the New Testament church because because the tithe was a part of the
law, and Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law for us, and when
he filled the requirements of the law for us, then we are no longer
under the law. And if we're not so, then we were not under
the penalty of violating the law because He's delivered this from the curse of the
law. Right and the tithe all belongs to the law. And I'm trying
to answer some of that for us today because in any church there's people struggling
with that argument. I've struggled with that argument. Maybe Frank struggled with it
when he had to give five dollars to the church. What in the world.
Okay, well, all right, that's what I should do. Fast
word. Five years later, he's abounding with blessings. I don't know if
anybody that's sprung up out of incarceration faster and better than Frank Cashier home.
I just don't. So answering this question, I want you to see that
in answering this question, Yeah, tithing was spoken of in the law,
and tithing was made like super clear in the law. Like there's all sorts
of stuff about tithing in the law, like the one we just read out
of it, Leviticus twenty seven. But it didn't start with the law.
The law was added open it here. The law was added four four hundred
and thirty years after Abraham received the promise. So Abraham received the promise,
then there's instruction. There had to be instruction about tithing, because he's the
father of faith, and he gave ten percent in faith, and faith cometh
by, so he must have heard something. So joyfully he gives unto this
swan who's called him out of paganism and promised he's going to give him a
great name, bless him and through him, everybody else is going to be
blessed. Right, So then four hundred and thirty years later the law is
added. But when the law was added, God didn't change his mind.
It wasn't like tithing was a new thing. Actually, he was just clarifying
what he started with. And what's really weird is that he started this way
on purpose, so that when he introduced the priesthood under the law, which
was a new priesthood to watch over the Mosaic law. There the new priesthood
introduced. But he started this way because the Bible says that Levi and Aaron,
those who watched over the priest it and collected tithe from the people,
they actually gave a tithe to Christ through Abraham. So Paul says, the
validation of the Mosaic law and the right of the Levites and Aaron to collect
the tithe from the people is not because I say so, It's because they
already tithed to mel Keesedic through Abraham, because they were in the loins of
Abraham when Abraham tithed to Christ. Is that crazy? So it wasn't like
God changed his mind. And so then we get over here, right,
Let's get over here. Galatians three nineteen, we could go there. Galatians
three nineteen. This is Christ and he's restoring us to Abraham. He fulfills
the requirements of the law and restores us to Abraham. Follow So, yeah,
I'm no longer under Moses or the law of Moses. But this is
weird. The promise was higher than the law. The law was only the
old law was only given because these people four hundred and thirty years later weren't
led by the Holy Spirit, so they had to have laws written. But
when we get back over here and we're restored to the promise, then the
laws are written on our heart. So actually, this coming back under Abraham
and the shift of priesthood from Aaron and Levi back to melk Kezedek. By
the way that it's a shift of priesthood, Hebrews makes it super clear that
when we come back under Jesus, the priest Jesus is a priest in the
order of melk Kezedek. It's a shift of priesthood and a shift of the
law. We go back to the law of the Spirit of the life of
in Christ Jesus. We go back to the law of the Spirit, the
law of promise. Right but it's a higher law. It's a higher law.
What's that mean. It doesn't mean that we would give less. It
means that we would give with a heart of giving. See when I lost
the spirit four hundred and thirty years later, when I did, we go
to Glacians three nineteen. You had it up for a long time. Why
would law given? He was added because of transgressions. Oh, transgressions increased,
lack of the spirit. Transgressions increased until the seed of whom the promise
referred to. The promise wasn't just Isaac. The promise was Yahia until the
promise would come. So the law was given because of an increase of transgressions.
We gotta make this clear. We gotta spell it out. This is
God's money. Give it back to him. Spell it out. You know
why. Because they were doing this. The law was epitomized by deeds with
no heart. Yeah, I'm not gonna kill my neighbor, but I wish
I couldn't. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, but I'll tell you I'm
not gonna lie about that. I'm not gonna lie. I'd like to lie.
Yeah, I'm not gonna cheat, only because they're watching, right,
now. But as soon as they aren't watching, I'm gonna cheat. The
law was epitomized by doing good with no heart in it, and so under
the law they were bringing their tithe, but it was it was a stingy.
There was no heart in it. There was no heart in it under
the law. When we're restored to Abraham, this is why, this is
why Paul says God loves a cheerful giver. When we're restored to Abraham,
were restored to knowing. Oh, oh my goodness, I'm a child of
Abraham. Let's see. Let's see he's making he's making my name great because
he's making his name great. And I've hooked up my name to his name,
and he's blessing all people through me, and and he's promised to make
me rich. I don't need the shock and job. I don't need the
trick and scheme. I don't need to lie. I don't need to deceive.
He's gonna make me rich. He's gonna make me rich. You don't
believe me, None of you believe me. You don't believe that part to
you. You've been deceived. You've been deceived. God wants to pour out
upon you riches. Remember the Lord, your God. It is he who
gives you the power to create wealth, that he may confirm the covenant that
he swore to Your Father's God wants to bless you be on your wildest dreams,
but he's gotta work on your heart attitude and his love. As our
heart attitude is still the mosaic heart, we have to get rid of the
mosaic heart. If our heart attitude is Let's see, I brought in forty
nine hundred and fifty six dollars, I'm gonna bring four hundred and ninety five
point six. That's what I'm gonna bring, not a pennymore if her heart,
If her heart is hard, and we're bound up in legalism of the
heart, then we're not making the connection with Abraham, who received the promise,
who walked by faith, who heard from God, who joyfully gave,
and would not let any unclean thing declare that it made him rich. No
unclean thing, no covenant relationship with Sawdom, or any unclean thing can declare
will ever declare that it made Abram rich. Only that which has been birth
of God. We'll make Abram rich. I'm talking about you. I'm talking
about you right now. I want you to make this association that God wants
you to know. He wants you to he wants to bless you. That's
what these things are all about. The tithe and he needed a way.
He needed a way to care for his flock. He needed a way to
care for the body. He needed a way to grow the church in a
third dimension world. So He's ordained all of this to be this way.
But then he said, I'm going to attach crazy, crazy promises to it.
I'm literally going to blow them away. This is what God has done.
We have to see that any requirement like this moves us into privilege that
nobody else has. Like if you're if you're an unbeliever today you're with us
and you've never come to know the Lord, Like this isn't you don't even
have to worry about this. This is not for you. You're like the
pre Abraham state. But you're also that's a bummer because you're you're not walking
in the privilege of this either. This is a privilege like when God declared
over Israel. Remember there's sixty nine other nations. There's seventy nations on the
planet. When God declares over Israel. I want you to rest on the
seventh day. Oh Bomber, we can't work. I'm so mad. I
wanted to work, but at Bad Bad I wanted to work. Mad,
mad, Mad? Are you kidding me? If the privilege God's trying to
show them something, I'm gonna give you a day of rest. Every other
nation is going to work their tail off just to make it. They're barely
going to get by fighting against the curse and the thorns seven days a week.
They will have no rest. They're gonna work seven days a week.
But for my kids, I'm going to tell you something. Here's the privilege.
You're gonna have a day off. See, sometimes we want to see
the things that God calls us to do as a yoke constead of a privilege,
as a burden instead of a relief, instead of a blessing. We
want to see it as a hardship. But that's not the way it works.
Everything Kingdom is to give you peace, it's to give you relief,
it's to help you, it's to lift burden off of you. You're only
going to work six days a week, and I'm going to give you more
than everybody else on the planet. In six days than they have in seven.
That's the principle. The tithe is the same way. You're gonna give
me ten percent, and I'm going to give you more, more blessing,
more peace, more fulfillment, more riches, more outstanding, crazy stuff.
I have a whole list of these blessings. Let's put them up. This
is what the message is supposed to be on today. Gives supposed to be
on the ten blessings. But I realized that we can't really talk about the
blessings fully if half of us don't even believe tithing is valid. About half
of us in this church do not believe that tithing is valid. Did you
know you haven't even given an offering until you've actually tied. You can't give
an offering until you're tied because the tithe is the Lord's. So if you're
just giving a little bit, calling it an offering, it's not an offering.
You can't give an offering to lefter you've given a tithe. The first
ten percent is the Lord's after that, and you can give an offering that's
called a free will offering. In other words, he it belongs to the
first ten belongs to the Lord. I don't have a choice about that that
belongs the Lord. I'm just gonna come with faith and celebrate. He gave
me victory. But the other ninety percent that's mine. He gave me mine.
He gave me ninety percent to manage. I'd like to give him an
extra five. Oh, that's called the free will offering. Let's call with
the love offering. Here's ten benefits, here's ten promises. The ninety percent
comes under a sanctified blessing. Number two, inherit the spiritual riches of the
kingdom. You want the heavens to open up with wisdom and revelation. Can
you believe that your money is actually associated with your understanding in the kingdom?
It is number three. Be entrusted with greater management responsibility. He that's faithful
with five dollars will be faithful with much. Be given property of your own,
because if you treat his property good, he's going to give you your
own property. Come under an open heaven of opportunity in favor. Receive Father's
protection against depth and loss. Become enviable. All the nations will call you
blessed. Become a delight a delightful land, a delightful house, enjoy long
life with fulfillment and escape the oppression of fear and greed. The stand this
morning, and that's Jeff to come to the platform. Chef's got a testimony.
I think he felt what I've felt many times last week, and he
shared it with me this week at prayer, and I want him to share
it with you while he's coming and just going to share. Today, I
called the day's sermon test drive drive. We're gonna go test a Tesla.
We're gonna go test rind of a Tesla. They're on sale, so we're
gonna go test drive a Tesla. If I'm calling a test drive because Malachi
three ten through twelve says, test me, test me, put me to
the test, test drive tithing. But lord, I'm only making a thousand
a month. Test him in this, But lord, I'm only making six
hundred dollars every two weeks. Test but lord, I'm only I'm only getting
a social Security check. Test me in this, but Lord, I'm making
ten thousand a month. Test me in this test drive. Put a test
drive. See if I will not open the windows of heaven. Right.
So I'm asking you today we're gonna take a second offering for missions, but
we're not going to do that. We're gonna just open up an offering after
Jeff Jeff talks, and I want the elshers to come though and prepare and
I want to I want to ask you to embrace a tithing challenge. And
that only applies to some of us, right, But for some of us,
if we've just been tipping God, or we haven't dove all the way
in, or we really haven't calculated what a true tithe is, or we've
been kind of fudging the numbers, or we just you know, we've been
dealing with an ideal with it. I've dealt with fear. I've looked at
those numbers and got nervous. I'm with help. Tithing in the past,
had to repent, had to get us straightened out. Whatever it's kind of
been hitting you that has kept you from really embracing this. I'm just asking
you allow Holy Spirit to bring faith to your heart. Allow him to bring
faith to your heart, because there's faith in the atmosphere this morning that will
shift you up into a new realm, a higher realm in Him, a
higher realm and Him. So Karen, my wife and I have been tithing
for decades, and maybe there's times where it kind of slipped into the routine
legal side. And so this last month, some deals came together all at
once, and so my income was triple what it normally is. And so
it came time to write the check, and I just felt this little tinge
of do I really want to do this? And it's like, you know,
what else could I do with that money? You know, all these
thoughts run through your mind. And so wrote out to check, brought it
to church, let it go into the bucket as it came by, But
my hand was kind of gripping it a little bit. But as Pastor Dwayne
taught the message last Sunday, this faith began to rise up in my heart
and my hand just opened so where I could release that gift to Heaven,
release back to Him what's his. And now I'm I'm feeling the connection again.
So I'm back. We're back open to His wisdom, his love.
And when we give our tithes to the Lord with our whole heart, that's
our Heart's the step ladder that takes it to Heaven, and where unrighteous mammon
is converted into the love of God, that ends up pouring back out on
all of you and makes the work of the Kingdom of God happen. It's
the love of God that builds the Kingdom of God, and we can convert
unrighteous mammon into the love of God going out to people. So anyway,
I just got free in that service. As I heard the word and faith
came. I was just able to open my hand and let that tithe.
It was already in the basket, but my heart wasn't attached to it yet
until I got my hand open. Thank you for teachings, Thank you Lord
for this beautiful congregation. Thank you Lord, and thank you Lord. We
are we are fulfilling our covenant with you. We are we are entering into
this love life with You, where where we can transfer unrighteous mammont into worship
to You, and where it's your love pouring out back on us. So
I thank you Lord, that that all of us would be able to taste
this and experience it and know that we're we're safe and protected. Even when
the math says you have less, we have less, our heart tells us
we're enriched with the blessings of Heaven and we're well provided for. Lord,
We thank you for that Jesus name, keep your heads about just for a
minute, eyes closed, just from an heads about, just from a I
just want to talk to your heart a little bit. It's where ever you're
out. I want you to just trust the Lord. Not a mission's offering
this morning, but just even if it's a gift this morning, that just
says, I want to make this right in my life. I want to
believe God. I want to trust God with my whole heart. I want
to be a hundred percent in I want to be generous in this. I
want you to grab an envelope, or Michael, are the four ways up
on the screen. Put the four ways on the screen, Rob an envelope
this morning, open your phone, do something. But that's if the lug
Lord is. If the Lord is tugging in your heart, he's saying,
test me, test me, test me, test me. I was thinking
this morning, I'm so glad that I've never retreated on this, because I
was thinking, you know, sometimes it takes a while for Ecclesiastics. I
think it's eleven twenty five says cash your bread on the water, and after
many days it will come back. You know. I hate to say do
a ninety day challenge. I hate to say, let's do a thirty day
challenge. I hate to put a time I'm limit on it, because over
time what has happened is that God has done the miraculous with so many of
us, with Joe and Sandy calling him, Melissa, Craig and Claire,
just so many of us here that I know and I'm close with, you
know, just various ones that have been part of the body. The Lord's
done miracles where you know, we look at we look at what we have
had for an income, and then we look at what God has done with
us, and it doesn't make any sense at all. The only thing that
makes any sense is that God has done miracles and he wants to do He's
not a respecter of persons. He doesn't love me more than he loves you.
So it's not really a ninety day challenge. It's kind of like I'm
in. I'm a lifer. Jeff and Karen, we're lifers. We're gonna
be lifers. But I'm not going to be a lifer without my faith.
I'm not going to be you know, if the Lord never blesses me,
I'm good. No, that's impossible. He that comes to God must believe
that he is and that he is the rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
He doesn't even want me to say, if he never blesses me,
I'm good. What he wants me to say is he's gonna bless me.
Are you kidding me? This is the God of blessing. So my invitation
is, just do something to mark this day, do something to seal,
and to mark this day as this is a day where I've decided I'm going
to go all in with the first fruits. I'm gonna go all in with
the first ten percent. Just mark this day, set it apart, and
then let it be the beginning of an of not just a test drive,
but a complete agreement with Father and his kindness over you, Alder, We
thank you for him. We seal this day before you. She's this name.
Amen. Let's your church love you. Let's worship as we go